Defying Gravity: Natsumi Hayashi's Levitation Self Portraits

As Jason Kottke points out, Japanese photographer Natsumi Hayashi isn’t the first artist to play around with “levitation” in her work — and yet there’s something oddly addicting in flipping through shots of her floating around Tokyo. In fact, the project has had so much success over the past few months that it spawned an adorable line of t-shirts. “We are all surrounded by social stress as we are bound by the forces of earth’s gravity,” Natsumi told My Modern Met back in February. “So, I hope that people feel something like an instant release from their stressful days by seeing my levitation photos.” Unfortunately, the once daily series looks like it may be on hold for now, as her website hasn’t been updated with new photos since April. (Maybe she’s just resting?) Click through to check out some of our favorite shots, and if you’re feeling inspired to give it a try yourself, here’s a quick how-to from Natsumi.